LEICESTER, U.K.—Cooke Optics has launched the SP3 range of full-frame prime lenses for mirrorless cameras. The lenses, which come in five focal lengths and a choice of user-changeable mounts, are small, lightweight yet offer robust construction, the company said. 

“The imaging market has long been viewed as ‘videography’ and ‘cinematography’, with their associated differences particularly evident in budgets and hardware,” explained Tim Pugh, CEO, Cooke Optics. “However, these boundaries are now blurring with vast improvements in the quality of ‘mid-market’ camera performance and consequently the creative optical possibilities and ambitions in this area are widening. This ‘democratization’ means that we can now offer truly cinematic glass to the traditional pro-video market at an accessible price point and with flexibility of camera mounts, enabling more DOP’s to enhance the narrative of their stories.”

The Cooke SP3 full-frame prime lens series is based on the Cooke Speed Panchro, with a new design optimized optically and mechanically for mirrorless cameras. It offers outstanding definition and resolution yet features fall-off towards the edge of frame, which is a key factor in the cinematic look achieved by the Speed Panchro lenses together. 

The SP3s also feature specialized cinematic optical coatings that ensure control of excessive flare. 

The SP3 range offers 25mm, 32mm, 50mm, 75mm and 100mm focal lengths. Lenses come with E-Mount installed, and RF-Mounts will be available soon. 

Early purchasers can get a set of RF mounts at no cost by following the process noted in the packaging. L-Mount is available now as an accessory part and M-Mount will be introduced in early 2024. 

The SP3s are Cooke’s lightest lenses, weighing in at between 500g/1.10lbs and 690g/1.52lbs including lens mount, making them practical for use on lighter weight gimbals as well as drones; their robust construction and mechanics will also withstand the rigors of fast-paced shooting environments. The small, ergonomic form factor delivers cinematic quality shooting even in tight or hard to reach places. They feature a dual focus scale, and the focus and iris mechanics are aligned across the set to allow for fast lens changes while maintaining focus and iris motor positions, the company said. 

The SP3 range is available worldwide from the middle of September. Pricing is $4,500 / £3,250 / €3,900 for a single lens and $21,375 / £15,400 / €18,525 for the complete set of five lenses in a heavy-duty carry case. 

LEICESTER, U.K.—Cooke Optics has announced the launch of four new focal length lenses – 27mm, 35mm, 65mm and the 18mm – for its S8/i Full Frame (FF) series of lenses. 

Cooke introduced the first seven focal lengths of the state-of-the-art S8/i series last March. With an all-spherical design and T1.4 throughout, these lenses were developed following feedback from cinematographers wanting to achieve more realistic and cinematic images for digital motion capture.

The S8/i FF series is now available to order in the following focal lengths: 18mm, 25mm, 27mm, 32mm, 35 mm, 40mm, 50mm, 65 mm, 75mm, 100mm, and 135mm. Remaining focal lengths to complete the sixteen-lens line-up will be added to the series over the course of this year.

“We are excited to launch additional S8/i lenses into what’s already a market-leading range for full frame production,” said Tim Pugh, CEO of Cooke Optics. “Further focal lengths offer cinematographers even more choice and flexibility to achieve their creative visions. These lenses were intelligently built from the ground up for use in motion pictures; and their all-spherical make up provides not only a beautiful aesthetic but makes them the perfect companion for digital cameras.”

Building on the famous Cooke Look, S8/i FF lenses deliver beautiful images that have an organic feel and a smooth, spherical bokeh effect with minimal color fringing. S8/i lenses enable cinematographers to capture images with a high level of dimensionality, the company reported.

The human eye’s perception of resolution is linked to contrast, therefore improved contrast results in the viewer seeing a sharper image on the screen. Cooke’s design team, led by Academy Award winning lens designer Iain Neill in a role of chief optics advisor, completed a wide-ranging analysis to guarantee maximum contrast performance for digital camera sensors. The S8/i’s all-spherical design is constructed to deliver a near telecentric projection of light rays which is more efficient for creating organic images that present as both sharp yet natural with dimensional roll off, Cooke Optics explained. 

Alongside these strategic targeted attributes, S8/i lenses are among the fastest produced for larger than full frame capture, due to their maximum aperture of T1.4 across the core focal range. This fast T stop extends the series control over depth of field and lens flare, whilst still delivering amazing low-light performance. Compact, light and agile, S8/i lenses combine design durability in an ergonomic package. The range comes with Cooke’s latest intelligent /i technology, which includes /i data focus and iris position, /i motion inertial data and /i maps, Cooke factory calibrated shading and distortion data.

LEICESTER, U.K.—Cooke Optics has released a 19-40mm wide zoom in its Varotal/i FF range, that also includes the 30-95mm medium and 85-215mm long zooms that were launched at the end of 2021. 

The launch of the 19-40mm zoom completes the Varotal/i FF series, enabling Cooke to offer broad focal length coverage for the majority of production needs.

“We are immensely proud to complete the Varotal/i FF range with the new wide zoom,” said Tim Pugh, CEO, Cooke Optics, said,  This cutting-edge series gives even more flexibility to creatives in choosing how to tell their stories, offering the Cooke Look in a zoom range to match our celebrated primes.”

The Varotal/i FF T2.9 spherical zoom series offers superb resolution, constant optical speed and minimal breathing throughout the range, the company said. 

All Varotal/i FF zooms deliver the famed Cooke Look, offering natural, flattering skin tone and character, and match the Cooke S8/i FF (at T2.8) and S7/i FF prime lenses, enabling cinematographers to preserve their creative intent when switching between primes and zooms.

The Varotal/i FF series offers focal length coverage from 19mm to 215mm. This coverage provides cinematographers with huge flexibility in the focal length choice from only three lenses, and the set is designed with suitable crossover between focal lengths, Cooke reported. 

The new 19-40mm lens is the widest of the three Varotal/i FFs, and slightly lighter at 3.5kg (7.7lbs), with 30-95mm and 85-215mm lenses both weighing 4kg (8.8lbs). As the widest zoom with suitable close focus of 320mm, this is an ideal lens for Steadicam work, allowing the camera operator to obtain fluid moving shots while getting close to the subject, the company said. 

With an ergonomic design and solid casing, the lenses are relatively compact when considering their focal length range, speed, and image circle. /i Technology connectivity is provided to both camera and the Lemo connection on the side of the lens, making lens data accessible to production from a zoom.

The full Varotal/i FF series is now available to order and will be available to test at EnergaCAMERIMAGE which takes place from 12-19 November in Torun, Poland.

LEICESTER, U.K.—Cooke Optics has announced that its lenses were used on the Netflix thriller “End of the Road”, which recently bowed on the streaming service, and that one set of its Special Flair lenses "dominated" screen time during Netflix film.  

“I’ve used Cooke lenses a lot,” said cinematographer Ed Wu. “The S4s, S5s, S7s, pretty much all the sphericals and the anamorphics, so I didn’t need to do tests to figure out what lens I wanted. With Cooke anamorphics I knew what I was going to get, plus I have a good encyclopedic knowledge of anamorphics in my head. For End of the Road, the Cooke anamorphic S35s completely met Millicent’s [director Millicent Shelton] shooting style, which called various focal lengths, and the S35s have every prime lens we would need...no compromises.”

When it came to whether to use the Cooke Special Flair version of the Anamorphic/i S35 prime lenses, that is where the testing came in.

“First, let me say that if this was a single camera shoot, the special flairs would have been 95% of the film,” said Wu. “But even as a multicam and split unit film, they’re still on screen 70-75% of the time. My A cam was always special flair, whether it was close, medium, or wide.”

Wu had heard about Cooke’s Special Flair lenses and how they significantly enhance flares, and had always wanted to try them. 

“For End of the Road, we tested and compared the special flair to no special flair, doing the exact same comparisons with the majority of wide lenses up to the 75mm,” he said. “I would flair with a separate off-cam and on-cam flair created with a tungsten hard fresnel, an on-cam unfrosted bare bulb, and an on-cam flare from a flashlight that would move around the barrel. After seeing the tests and how the horizontal flair looked on the flashlight, plus the special flair’s nice milkiness, you could just feel the excitement from the image. With lots of practical lights in frame, highly saturated color, car headlights and a more subtle flare from cell phones and more pinpoint sources, I knew that special flair was the way to go.”

“Mil and I talked, and she especially wanted to lean in towards the flair,” Wu added. “Just because a flair doesn’t happen naturally, doesn’t mean it won’t lean towards naturalism and stylism to create emotion in the viewer. Plus, we had non-special flair lenses to fall back on if the flair was too much.”

Wu would have a total of three sets of Cooke Anamorphic/i S35 primes for End of the Road. That would include one set of Anamorphic/i S35 SF lenses consisting of the 25mm, 32mm, 40mm, 50mm, 65mm MACRO, 75mm, 100mm, 135mm, 180mm and 300mm primes and two standard non-flair sets each with 25mm, 32mm, 40mm, 50mm, 65mm MACRO, 75mm, 100mm, 135mm and 180mm primes. These lenses, as well as four RED RANGER Gemini bodies were provided by Keslow Camera, with a RED Komodo provided by the 2nd Unit DP and B-Cam operator, Benji Dell, for primarily the car rigs. In addition, a DJI Inspire 2 drone was used. For the 4K required by Netflix, End of the Road was shot 2.39 at 5K with 5:1 compression.

Wu used the 65mm MACRO as a straight 65mm. “I used macro for a few shots, to get close and then get a wider shot," he said. "That wideness, it’s like a 35mm spherical. With most lenses, you’re so limited to how close you can get. I always want to go wider and closer. I was always limited by how much I can get in, and with a diopter I couldn’t get all the way back for a wider shot, so these 65 macros are just perfect.”

“Mil has a TV background and likes multicam a lot,” continued Wu. “She likes shooting two and three cameras at a time. What I love is two or three widest, which you can’t really do that on a single camera job. I love the 32 and 25 for my wides. I’m astounded by the lack of radial distortion and how clean the edges look. It’s just so clean...it’s amazing. For the characters, I used the 50 and 75 for mediums and the 75 and 100 for close ups, with an honorable mention to the 40. But we threw on every lens for the shoot. It’s pretty impressive the number of anamorphic lenses from Cooke that you get in the range. You get that wide focal length you expect, but other lens companies’ end at 100, Cooke going up to 300 is pretty amazing!”

End of the Road is a action thriller where a cross-country road trip becomes a highway to hell for Brenda (Queen Latifah) and her family. Alone in the New Mexico desert, they must fight for their lives when they become the targets of a mysterious killer. Shot outside of Albuquerque, New Mexico between June and August of 2021, the conditions Wu and Shelton wanted in the film were exactly what they got in real life.

“When it came to exterior daytime shots, we lit with the sun,” explained Wu. “We would plan within the schedule for the best times to shoot with back or side light, always trying to avoid flat sunlight. I also used a fly swatter to avoid the direct noon sun on top of our actors’ faces. We did have to shut down a few times to avoid heat stroke, but it was a tough shoot that pays off on camera.”

It was important to Wu and Shelton that their visual theme of the location was not the typical desert that’s a dry desaturated world lacking color. “We would push a vibrancy that we haven’t seen in a desert landscape and small town,” said Wu. “Mil let me push those limits on the camera and the lighting side.”

In addition to being an action/crime drama, End of the Road is also a drama of a family recovering from a loss, explained Wu. “I wanted to push the idea of the heat of the sun and summer in the desert. We see that playing into the language of the characters...sweating more, with me opening up exposure, exposing hotter on the tone curve and riding the edge of blowing out on the high end. And for night, I wanted them to stay in that heat, so I used a purple moonlight – cyan or blue is typical – but purple is a warmer hue, continuing the idea of the heat within the story.”

“We also wanted to show beautiful vistas, but how desperate you can be in this isolated world,” continued Wu. “You’re nobody compared to the elements, climate and geography. Anamorphic helped to isolate the characters. There’s nowhere that they can go except forward. So, there’s lots of negative space being on the wider end of the lenses.”

Shooting as wide open as he was, Wu used 1/8 black pro mist throughout the entire shoot, given the more extreme blooming that the soft frost adds.

One of the surprising aspects of shooting in New Mexico in the summer was the weather. Not the sunny and hot weather you would expect, but the rain.

“The weather conditions were crazy,” explained Wu. “It turns out that New Mexico has a monsoon season, and none of us knew that. Basically, 3-5 days of the week a thunderstorm would roll in out of nowhere and pour rain for 1-2 hours. That meant shutting down 3-5 days of the week when lightening got to within six miles of our locations.”

While the weather meant losing 3-5 production hours a week and having to push the contrast to match the shots in grading, it did deliver an unexpected benefit, according to Wu. “We caught a lightning strike behind one of the villains. It was a stroke of luck and it’s still in the film.”

Alastor Arnold, senior colorist at FotoKem, was brought in very early by Wu. “I always like to bring the colorist in early to develop the LUTs,” said Wu. “We do a bunch of tests, get him the look book and some footage of the production design elements, what the cars will be as this is a road trip movie, and some choices for the colors. There’s a lot of very vibrant colors, like a burgundy red Crown Vic and a baby blue SUV for the family. The idea was to push the saturation and vibrancy, but not have it feel overly saturated. It still needs to feel like reality.”

“When Alastor and I are finally in post, Mil comes in and wants to push the saturation even further,” said Wu. “Shooting in HDR gave us much more color and tonal space to work with. We were definitely pushing the edges of the color science.”

“To me, aesthetically, I don’t like the very crisp images you get with digital and other lenses. I like the softer look characteristics of Cooke lenses, the falloff you get with how the optics work. It’s just more immersive to the story telling and Cooke has that really nice balance, where I see the sweet spot between the background falloff to create the soft look, but a sharper foreground so that faces and emotion come out extraordinarily clean.”

“With Cooke Anamorphics, they’re not gunky nor do they deteriorate like a lot of other anamorphics fighting a wide-open stop for clarity. Cooke, wide open, the center always stays sharp and just the edges fall off. If I go wide open, they retain that sharpness in the center of the image. Even on set with a 25-inch monitor, you can only get so close to the monitors to see the fine resolution. But I have confidence in Cooke anamorphics and I know that I will have that center sharpness with the falloff that I really like.”

LEICESTER, U.K.—Director of Photography Philip Lanyon will bring “Star Trek: Discovery” fans further into the story than ever before in Season 4 by shooting in full frame with Cooke Optics 1.8x Anamorphic/i Full frame Plus SF (Special Flare coating) prime lenses.

The new lenses, which supplement the 2x Anamorphic/i SF lenses used since Season 2, can be intercut seamlessly with the existing lenses despite each having a different de-squeeze factor.

“I have a history with the ‘Star Trek’ franchise, and the Cooke Anamorphic/i 2x with the Special Flare coating from when I shot an episode of ‘Discovery’ during Season 2,” said Lanyon.

“I then went on to be the lead director of photography for ‘Star Trek: Picard’ with the Cooke Anamorphic/i Special Flare lenses. I love the Special Flare. They really give me a visual playground in which to convey different emotions through light, color and composition, which is perfect for both ‘Picard’ and ‘Discovery.’ 

“We are in so many interesting and unique environments, with strong lighting sources that interact organically with the glass. When a ship is near a star, or there are space gases or an alien planet, each present a unique flare that gives the environment an authenticity or feeling of being there. Plus, they give me the control to bring in more flare or take flare away just with a simple lighting change. That adds a lot to the ‘Star Trek’ universe.”

Lanyon, who served as Director of Photography along with Franco Tata and Chris Mably for the 13 episodes of “Star Trek: Discovery” Season 4, wanted to shoot in both Super 35 style with the Anamorphic/i 2x SF and add full frame format with the Anamorphic/i Full Frame Plus SF.

“Full frame has some distinct advantages, along with a cleaner image — it allows me to get closer to the subject with a wider field of view without the distortion of a wide-angle lens,” he said. “That allows viewers to feel more of the relationship between the subject and their environment in a close up — not only who or what they are, but where they are.”

Lanyon was the driving force behind using full frame for “Discovery” although the decision to introduce full frame was also somewhat technically driven. “’Discovery’ used virtual production environments in Season 4 and the large format can effectively give you softer backgrounds, which was important to control moiré and other artifacts you can get on a LED wall, but shooting in full frame is what I wanted for the look and feel of Season 4,” he said.

While “Discover”’ was the first “Star Trek” series to adopt the full frame format, it won’t be alone for long. “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds,” slated for release in 2022, also went with Cooke Anamorphic/i Full Frame Plus SF (as well as Anamorphic/i SF) independent of what Lanyon was doing on “Discovery.” 

Season 4 was shot using ARRI ALEXA Mini, Mini LF, and SXT cameras and a large assortment of Cooke lenses. They included three complete sets of the Anamorphic/i 2x SF primes (25mm, 32mm, 40mm, 50mm, 65mm MACRO, 75mm, 100mm, 135mm, 180mm and 300mm) and one set of the Anamorphic/i Full Frame Plus 1.8x SF (40mm, 50mm, 75mm, 100mm and 135mm). The Anamorphic/i Full Frame Plus SF set was dedicated to the virtual production stage for the first 11 episodes, and used as an A camera on the last two. Director Olatunde Osunsanmi wanted to bring more single shot “oners” to the end of the season and the large format feel was perfect for that.

Sim International provided the cameras and lenses.

More information is available on the Cooke Optics website. 

LEICESTER, U.K.—Flare is nothing new in filmmaking. Directors of photography use it all the time. While for many it’s simply a light reflection from the lens glass, it can become an additional element to the storytelling process.

Cooke Optics has two sets of anamorphic prime lenses (super 35mm and full frame) that have their standard coating. These lens sets are also both available with Cooke’s Special Flare (SF) coating. The lenses are exactly the same, except for the Special Flare coating… and that Special Flare coating is really special. 

I love the Special Flare. If you’ve never seen it or used it, you’re missing out on a great creative tool.

A FLARE FOR 'STAR TREK'

That special coating accentuates flares, bokeh and other anamorphic aberrations. Being able to use different light sources that create a relationship and interaction between the sets and the camera—and control the amount of flare—is one reason I’ve used the Special Flare coated lenses on both “Star Trek: Picard” and, more recently, on “Star Trek: Discovery” season 4, where I served as lead director of photography on both.

Since it’s “Star Trek,” there are technology-lit environments with LEDs and harder light sources: ships, stars, space gases, control surfaces, bright point sources that bloom and glow. I use these different practical sources to create layers of light and contrast that enhance emotional beats in the visual storytelling. It’s not in the viewer’s face, but the impact it delivers is not subtle. That is, unless you want it to be. 

While using the Special Flare lenses, I have always had great control over flare. If I want more flare, I just use a harder light. If I want less flare, I knock down the light until I have what I want.

That’s what made the Special Flare perfect for both “Star Trek: Picard” and “Star Trek: Discovery.” It’s a natural decision for the “Star Trek” universe. So natural, that independent of the work that I was doing with both full frame and Special Flare, my colleague and mentor, Glen Keenan, who is lead DP on the newest series “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds” also went with both Cooke Anamorphic/i Full Frame Plus SF and Anamorphic/i SF.

SEE THE DIFFERENCE

As I write this, you can watch “Star Trek: Picard” on Paramount+, where you can see the difference between the series open on a more naturally lit planet Earth and the transition to the more technological lighting of being in space. “Star Trek: Discovery” season 4 will premiere in late 2021, while Keenan’s Special Flare work on “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds” will be released in 2022. In addition, there are a number of other projects that have used Cooke’s Special Flare lenses that you can view at www.shotoncooke.com.

It’s not often that DPs get the opportunity to add to their creative toolkit. Typically, today it’s gadgets—things that the camera gets attached to or that attaches to the camera or lens. But Cooke’s Special Flare coating is part of the lens. It’s integrated and controllable. I hope that you’ll grow to love it as much as I do. l

Philip Lanyon is a multi-award-winning director of photography/ cinematographer working around the globe. With more than 30 years’ experience in the film and television industry, Lanyon works on commercials to feature films, documentaries to some of the largest television shows produced today. He can be reached at philiplanyon@mac.com.

For more information visit www.cookeoptics.com. 

LEICESTER, U.K.—In capturing “Kevin Can F**k Himself,” which began airing this week on AMC, cinematographer Adrian Peng Correia relied on Cooke Optics S7/i Full Frame prime lenses.

The series is the story about a woman playing a perfect housewife in a sitcom that moves back and forth from her own point of view to the surreal world of the 4-camera sitcom world as she decides she is going to kill her husband. 

“This story is from the perspective of the wife, Annie [Murphy’s] character, and how she sees the world,” said Correia. “She sees her world in two ways — and from a visual standpoint, they are very specific: her reality and in the world of a multicam sitcom.”

Season one’s 8-episodes feature cutaways from reality, but viewers never truly leave the multicam sitcom world, with cutaways that range from 40 to 60 percent of each episode. “With viewers jumping in and out of reality, we needed reality to have a very specific look, that’s why I went with the Cooke S7/i lenses,” said Correia. “It was an opportunity as a cinematographer to really take off and have a voice,”.

That voice started during pre-production, with Steven Porter, supervising colorist at MTI Film who worked with Correia to create LUTs for both worlds. Reality would be desaturated in the camera and further tweaked in post. The sitcom world would be bright and colorful, much as it is portraited in most sitcoms.

“I was brought in as a replacement DP, primarily due to Covid having shut everything down and the original DP no longer being available,” said Correia. “Some work had been done for the sitcom look pre-COVID, but we ended up redesigning most of the lighting layout.   I really like to know as much as I can about the look before starting photography, because in our new world, you never know what can happen. That’s why having those LUTs was imperative. Plus, I had never done a multicam sitcom look before.”

To help get as knowledgeable as possible about lighting and shooting a sitcom, Correia reached out to friend and former `Will & Grace’ DP cinematographer Gary Baum, ASC and ‘Bob Hearts Abishola’ DP Patti Lee, ASC. “I got as many pointers and ideas as I could to arm myself,” said Correia.

For the single camera reality world, Correia came into the project with specific looks already determined during pre-production. “They wanted to do a more grounded, gritty look, but I was able to add my style of elevated naturalism, with more expressiveness in the lighting,” he explained. “The original plan for the single cam — actually two cameras for coverage — was to use the ARRI ALEXA Mini, but to use four Sony F55s for the sitcom. I wanted a similar imager to the sitcom cameras, so we went with Sony Venice cameras, with everything shot in 16x9.”

When it came to the lenses for the reality world, Correia knew exactly what he wanted and why. “I needed dimensionality to offset the photographically flat multicam sitcom world, especially for faces,” he said. “I absolutely love how the S7/i lenses render faces, especially having used them on “The Flight Attendant.” Those full frame lenses make performances pop, regardless of the performer. As an example, Kaley Cuoco’s character in “The Flight Attendant” has an outward and comedic personality, while Annie Murphy’s character here in “Kevin Can F**k Himself” goes on a psychologically fracturing journey that is more muted and insular, peppered with outbursts of absurdity and drama. The dimensionality of the S7/i lens peers into those nuances in her face.”

Correia’s Cooke S7/i kit consisted of the 18mm, 21mm, 25mm, 32mm, 40mm, 50mm, 65mm, 75mm, 100mm, and 135mm lenses. 

While the 21mm became Correia’s go to lens for wides, his close-up work used mainly the 25mm, 32mm and 40mm. He also favored the 65mm for very dramatic moments.

“One of the nicest things about Cooke lenses is the information that you can get from them, both on-set and having it be recorded for VFX and CGI work,” said Correia, referring to Cooke’s /i Technology lens metadata. “Today, you want more from a lens and that’s where Cooke delivers. Just by looking at the monitors, I know where my stops are instead of having to radio my assistants. You have more control where everything lands and a more streamlined workflow. All data is useful, even just the option is powerful to me, even if I don’t use everything—I can do my job better. Knowing a 2.8 is a 2.8 and understanding what my lenses are doing is invaluable.”

Cameras and lenses were provided by rental company PRG Gear. Both the reality and multicam sitcom worlds were shot south of Boston at Stalwart Productions, in an unassuming warehouse-looking studio in Randolph, MA.

LEICESTER, U.K.—Netflix’s recent Spanish-language action thriller “Below Zero” was shot using Cooke S7/i full frame lenses, the choice of cinematographer Isaac Vila.

The majority of the film takes place inside of a police truck that is being attacked in addition to dealing with the freezing temperatures. Vila says that originally they wanted to shoot the film with anamorphic lenses, but instead went with spherical lenses with full frame format to create a feeling of spaciousness in the setting’s tight quarters.

“The Cooke S7/i’s were perfectly suited for what we needed,” said Vila. “They offer the quality, and at the same time a minimum of focus, which allowed us to shoot freely inside the van.”

The lenses also proved beneficial to capturing the cold and, in particular, an underwater scene in the movie, Vila explained.

“Below Zero” is now available on Netflix.

LEICESTER, U.K.—Cooke Optics has appointed Andy Buckland to the newly created role of director of product management. Reporting directly to Tim Pugh, CEO, Buckland’s new role includes responsibility for developing Cooke’s product roadmap, including launching forums to enable the design and development team to engage more effectively with the company’s range of customers and users.

Cooke Optics CEO Tim Pugh said in a press statement, “Andy has a wealth of technical and practical knowledge around cinematography, and works hard to understand the needs of customers. We’re delighted to welcome Andy to the Cooke team where his insight and experience will help us to shape our product plans and build on our success for the future.”

Buckland brings experience from across the media manufacturing industry, having previously held roles with Blackmagic Design, Mark Roberts Motion Control and Sony Professional Solutions Europe. He is a member of the technical committee of IMAGO, the lnternational Federation of Cinematographers, and holds an MSc in Broadcast Futures from Ravensbourne College of Design and Communication as well as being a Chartered Engineer with the Institute of Measurement and Control (InstMC).

LEICESTER, U.K.—Award-winning lens designer Iain Neil has accepted the role of chief optics advisor at Cooke Optics. He will provide consulting advice and support for Cooke’s team of in-house lens designers.

Neil is the recipient of 12 Academy Awards for Scientific and Technical Achievement for the design of lenses and optical systems, two Emmy Statuette engineering awards and a Fuji Gold Medal Award in recognition of his lens work in image origination. He has more than 100 worldwide patents issued and applied for in visible, infrared and ultraviolet optical design, entertainment systems, defense, industrial and consumer applications.

In a press statement Cooke Optics CEO Tim Pugh said, “We’re pleased to welcome [Iain] to this new role, in which his unrivalled expertise and vision will help us to explore the latest technologies that will further strengthen our industry-leading range of precision lenses.”

“I look forward to working with the team on many exciting new designs in the months and years to come that will bring new facets to cinematography,” said Neil. 

Prior to founding his own Swiss-based optical technology consulting company, ScotOptix, Neil was employed for more than 18 years at Panavision Inc. as executive vice president, research & development and optics, and chief technical officer where he was known for his work on the Primo cine lenses.  He previously held the positions at Ernst Leitz Canada Ltd. (now Raytheon ELCAN Optical Technologies Ltd.) and Barr & Stroud (now a division of Thales). Recently he held the roles of CTO and co-CEO of CW Sonderoptic (now Leitz Cine Wetzlar).

LEICESTER, U.K.—A changing of the guard is taking place at Cooke Optics, as the lens manufacturer has announced that Les Zellan, chairman, and Robert Howard, CEO, are set to retire on Oct. 31. Tim Pugh has been tapped to replace Howard, and Kees van Oostrum will become a non-executive chairman.

Zellan took over Cooke Optics in 1998, helping to resuscitate the 100-year-old brand. Howard joined the company in 2008.

“It has been my honor to lead Cooke from relative obscurity to its rightful place in the industry,” said Zellan. “They say ‘it takes a village,’ and I would like to thank our dedicated staff and countless industry friends and colleagues around the world who have helped to shape Cooke’s product line, giving cinematographers and directors the choices that help them tell their stories in the best possible way.”

Pugh was most recently the CEO of James Bridges Ltd., a manufacturer of technical products for industrial and automotive markets. van Oostrum is currently a Cooke Optics board member, as well as a cinematographer for both TV and film and a previous president of the American Society of Cinematographers (2016-2020).

“Both Les and Robert have achieved what some would consider miraculous during their 20 years with Cooke,” said Pugh. “They are highly respected throughout the industry and will be a tough act to follow. … Kees and I are excited to take the reins of this beloved company as we move into the next stage of Cooke’s evolution with the on-going support of Caledonia Private Capital.”

LOS ANGELES—Today there’s no such thing as a project for one distribution medium. While the last century had movies finding their way to television and VHS, the theatrical screen was the focus (no pun intended). Now, filmmakers know that their projects will be seen on TVs, which used to be referred to as the “small screen” (although they’re not so small anymore).

I’ve used Cooke Optics prime lenses a lot in my career, especially for commercials, so I know how to shoot for television. For commercials, I would use Cooke S4/i prime lenses, which are spherical—as opposed to anamorphic—allowing theatrical widescreen images to be optically squeezed to be recorded on a narrower sensor or film stock like 35mm.

My choice of Cooke spherical lenses over others comes down to one thing: It’s all about the look. Cooke lenses render faces perfectly and have a great sense of depth that I don’t find in other lenses.

A NEW PERSPECTIVE

My exclusive use of Cooke spherical lenses would change in 2017 with the multiple award-winning short “Night Shift,” which chronicles a restroom attendant in a Los Angeles nightclub. “Night Shift” takes place almost entirely in a restroom, and with the square tiles on the restroom wall, it was like having to shoot a lens grid. I tested a bunch of anamorphic lenses, and the Cooke Anamorphic/i lenses were the only ones that would render true in the center of the frame without any color separation and not produce crazy anamorphic flaring—that was my “aha” moment. While I had used the spherical Cooke S4/i lenses a ton, the Cooke Anamorphic/i didn’t disappoint.

Then came “Clemency,” a full-length drama that would have many scenes shot in the tight confines of a former Los Angeles prison with dedicated shooting spaces. Shooting in a jail cell in anamorphic would be almost the same shooting conditions as “Night Shift.”

To be able to get as far back from the actors in a prison cell as possible, the camera and lens kit for “Clemency” consisted of an ARRI ALEXA Mini and Cooke Optics’ Anamorphic/i 25, 32, 40, 50, 65 MACRO, 75 and 100mm primes. I should mention that while the 65 MACRO is designed to allow extreme closeups, it also works as a standard 65mm prime lens—that was how I always used it—it’s such a beautiful lens and was my primary closeup lens. Plus, Cooke’s /i technology not only records all of the lens data to the recorder for post-production, it’s also a great production tool, putting lens data—such as lens setting, focusing distance, aperture and depth-of-field—on the monitor.

As writer/director Chinonye Chukwu wanted to create a sense of isolation in the frame, we used negative space a lot. We’d go from wider to closer through the film using a combination of the small ALEXA Mini and Cooke Anamorphic/i’s, sometimes having the back of the camera literally against the wall in the prison cell.

My choice of Cooke Anamorphic/i lenses helped me get the space I needed to shoot from a practical standpoint, but they helped to create the artistic look of “Clemency” as the film counts down to its final outcome, starting with negative space and ending very close.

Cooke lenses make people look great; they’re warmer and more about the face. That’s why Cookes are my go-to lens. 

Eric Branco has lensed several feature films, including “V/H/S” and the upcoming “The 40-Year-Old Version.” He can be contacted at ericbranco@gmail.com.

For additional information, visit www.cookeoptics.com.

LEICESTER, England—Cooke Optics’ S7/i Full Frame Plus prime lenses have joined the production of Netflix’s original series “Dead to Me,” starring Christina Applegate and Linda Cardellini.

The goal in bringing in the Cooke Optics lenses was for the show to maintain its look from the first season, but for the lead actresses to have a “warmer” look on screen, according to Toby Oliver, ASC, the show’s cinematographer.

The S7/i lenses were used with Sony Venice cameras in 6K mode for production, using all of the full-frame sensor. Oliver’s kit had seven Cooke S7/i lenses, ranging from 25mm to 135mm (25mm, 32mm, 40mm, 50mm, 75mm, 100mm and 135mm).

“With the Cookes, I had more flexibility, but they also gave me an edge in making the actresses look good, while keeping the overall tone continuous from season one to season two,” said Oliver.

Additional benefits of the Cooke lenses, according to Oliver, was the ability to add a softness to shooting in 6K digital; different options when shooting in full-frame mode; and the ability to collect detailed lens data for reference and have it displayed on the monitor.

The second season of “Dead to Me” is available on Netflix now.

LEICESTER, U.K.—The use of Cooke Optics 5/i prime lenses the last few seasons on HBO’s comedy series “Insecure” has helped director of photography Ava Berkofsky and director/executive producer Melina Matsoukas define the look of the show.

After the initial season, Berkofsky started using the Cooke 5/i T1.4 series of prime lenses, replacing the more traditional zoom-style lens for a half-hour comedy. The two full kits of new lenses featured nine focal lengths ranging from 18mm-135mm that were used with two ARRI Alexa Mini cameras. Most of the storytelling Berkofsky used the 65mm lens, but for the show’s distinctive breaking of the fourth wall she would use the 5/i 32mm at 3.5 feet.

“The 5/i is such a thorough set, they’re matched so well, even the 135mm,” said Berkofsky. “We would bounce all over the place. Always trying to figure out how to compress space; there was always a choice between focal lengths that gave me a consistent look.”

The lenses also allowed Berkofsky to often shoot people without using diffusion.

Berkosfky and the show earned a Primetime Emmy nomination for Outstanding Cinematography for a Single-Camera Series (Half Hour) for an episode in season three that used the Cooke lenses.

“The 5/i’s really are an integral part of developing the look of ‘Insecure,’ they are so specifically engrained in the DNA or the personality of the show,” said Berkofsky. “These lenses have been really, really good to me.”

ALEXANDRIA, Va.—Television and motion picture lens makers have found themselves challenged to develop and manufacture lenses that hold up to increasing resolutions of 4K and beyond. To achieve this, they’ve invented and applied new technologies that have been years in the making.

HIGH PRECISION OPTICS

Citing Thales Angenieux’s 70 years of building prime lenses, the company’s North American Sales Manager Nick Hayes said their new Optimo Primes “are the result of decades of proven experience and know-how in high precision optics and mechanics.”

The Optimo Prime series of 12 lenses provides full-frame 46.5mm image circle coverage with a consistent 1.8 T-stop except on the extremes. They are available as PL and LPL mount, and designed as smart lenses. The Optimo Prime series is very compact and lightweight, and they offer a common gear size and position for all lenses in the 12-lens set.

“Based on cinematographer feedback, Optimo Primes will provide both Cooke-I and LDS metadata,” said Hayes. Other user features include a replaceable iris blade unit, user-configurable for bokeh including anamorphic effect, a replaceable internal glass element to customize optical properties, a 320-degree focus rotation angle and the possibility to go beyond infinity and close focus.

He noted the full-frame Optimo Prime series is a perfect match with the Optimo Ultra 12X, Angenieux’s new long-range zoom.

BREAKING FREE

“ARRI’s new Signature Prime lenses take advantage of significant recent advancements in optical design, optical materials and coatings and optical machinery,” said Art Adams, ARRI cinema lens specialist. “But the real advancement has been a willingness to break free of our own legacy lens mount.”

The 30-year-old PL lens mount was developed by ARRI for 35mm film and had to make room between the lens and the camera for a spinning mirror, part of the viewfinder system. The new, larger LPL mount “should result in better, cheaper lens designs and greater lens portability between cameras.”

“The LPL lens mount is wider to allow for the free interchange of lenses between large format and S35 sensor cameras,” said Adams. “This additional width also allows for near-telecentric optical designs, where light strikes the sensor at an angle as close to perpendicular as possible. To do this, the lens mount must be as big as the sensor. Near-telecentricity eliminates a number of artifacts related to sensor design, such as increased chromatic and spherical aberration, edge shading and color-crossover effects. ARRI Signature Primes are the only near-telecentric multiformat lenses in the world, and as such we believe they will work optimally with any foreseeable future sensor designs.”

PUSHING THE ENVELOPE

Canon has just introduced a top-of-the-line portable 4K UHD lens, the very wide angle zoom UHD XF. “4K’s tough in 2/3 inch,” said Larry Thorpe, Canon USA’s national marketing executive. “You’re dealing with 200 line pairs per millimeter, it’s really pushing things.”

“We’ve been pretty good at wide angle for some years now. But with this one we wanted to extend the telephoto, and that was responding to pleas of various people. A lot of people in sports, when they’re shooting in smaller venues—like a basketball court, wrestling, boxing, even tennis—they love the wide angle. But they also want more telephoto. This lens gives them both.”

Not all customers are ready for 4K today, but can appreciate 1080 60p and HDR performance. “One of the problems with HDR and wide color gamut is that even a small amount of chromatic aberration becomes more visible. So when you make an HDR wide color gamut lens, you’ve just got to grind down those aberrations even more. And to do that, we use a multigroup for the zoom. Typically, portable lenses have two zoom groups to perform the zooming operation. In this lens we use three groups, and that way we get more degrees of freedom to control the aberrations and elevate the resolution.”

THE ‘COOKE LOOK’

Cooke Optics pioneered a number of lens developments over its more than a century of lens design and manufacturing. In its current lenses, it is replicating what it calls the Cooke Look, described as warm and natural images on the screen.

“We noticed when digital cinematography came in, not to talk bad about digital, but some people think of it as a boring format,” said Les Zellan, Cooke chairman. “Cinematographers were desperate to find a way to put character and life into the digital, and one of the ways they did that was by using the old lenses.”

One Cooke lens in particular, the Speed Panchro lenses, looked promising to fill that bill, even though Cooke hadn’t made one in 55 years. “We thought ‘why don’t we bring them up to the modern world mechanically?’ A lot of those old glasses weren’t available anymore, so we had to substitute, using that old look as a target. We’ve added things like the linear iris and the Cooke focusing scale. But the actual look that comes out of the back of the lens is a dead ringer for the Speed Panchro.”

BRAND NEW DESIGN

Over the past couple of years, Fujifilm has replicated 15 of its HD lenses to 4K Ultra High Definition with HDR capabilities. Two new focal length 46-times zooms are the wide angle UA46x9.5 and the more telephoto UA46x13.5.

“They’re all digital, all new stabilization system,” said Gordon Tubbs, vice president at Fujifilm North America Corporation, Optical Device Division. “We didn’t just build a new 4K lens and put an existing drive unit in it. Literally the whole lens is a brand new design in both cases.” There are two specialized versions of each of the zooms. One eliminates stabilization for applications such as aerial photography where stabilization is already provided. The other provides motorized remote control of the 2x extender, which is necessary for robotic operations.

Tubbs explained the 4K lenses in Fujifilm’s lineup are only marginally more expensive than the HD models they replace. “During the transition from SD to HD we learned a lot about manufacturing and tight tolerances as we went from one technology to the next. And of course there are advancements in glass and coatings.” The company has developed its HTEBC process, High Transmittance Electronic Beam Coatings.

“And now we’re making the same steps into 8K.”

CLOSER TO HUMAN EYESIGHT

A year ago, Zeiss introduced the first of its Supreme Prime line of lenses, and is continuing to add focal lengths a step wider and a step more telephoto to the first lenses released. The Supremes can handle both full frame and Super 35. “It’s being used in both sets of formats,” said Snehal Patel, Zeiss director of cinema sales for the Americas. “It works with the latest crop of digital cameras, like the Alexa LS, RED Monstro, Sony Venus and the C700 FF from Canon.”

He noted, “The Supremes are priced between the cost of a Zeiss Ultra Prime and a Master Prime. So economically it makes a lot of sense, especially in the rental environment, where the lenses will be used for a very long time.

“You’re going to see more and more demand coming because the cameras are available and the full frame format is so interesting with the wider angle of view, which is closer to human eyesight. And also the fact that you get this smaller grain structure from this sensor size, because you’re using pixels that are about the same size as the Super 35 sensors, except that when projected those pixels look smaller on screen.”

AMSTERDAM—Cooke Optics will introduce two new lenses at IBC 2019, Sept. 13-17.

The S7/i Full Frame Plus T2.0 16mm prime lens is the widest focal length lens in the S7/i range of lenses, designed for shooting full frame, including up to at least the full sensor area of the RED Weapon 8K (46.31mm image circle), the Sony VENICE full frame digital motion picture camera system and the ARRI ALEXA LF large format camera system.

Cooke Optics’ new Anamorphic 135mm Full Frame Plus T2.3 joins the company’s anamorphic prime lens range.

See Cooke Optics at IBC 2019 Stand 12.D10.

More information is available on the company’s website.

LEICESTER, England—The new six-episode miniseries “Catch-22,” which premiered in mid-May, is being shot with two ARRI ALEXA Mini cameras and two sets of Cooke Optics’ S4/I prime lenses, the lenses maker said this week.

The Hulu miniseries, based on Joseph Heller’s 1961 novel “Catch-22,” is directed by Grant Heslov, Ellen Kuras and George Clooney with cinematography by Martin Ruhe.

Unlike the 1970 “Catch-22” film, the miniseries is a dark comedy that conveys the perilous missions of U.S. Army Air Corp. aviators during World War II.

“We all looked at the original film, and the two projects have a different nature,” said Ruhe. “Ours is a dark comedy with a strong look for a strong visual story, as compared to the original, which was more of a straight comedy. The aerial scenes had to show the intense horror of being up in those small tin boxes. It had to be about life and death.”

His goal was to contrast the horror the aviators faced from enemy fire with the absurdity of what transpired on the ground. To make that happen, Ruhe used two identical sets of Cooke S4/iprime lenses—14mm, 18mm, 21mm, 25mm, 32mm, 40mm, 50mm, 65mm, 75mm, 100mm and 135mm focal lengths—shooting with the ARRI ALEXA Mini’s Super 35mm (2.8K) sensor in ARRI Raw 16:9 and later be finished in 4K HDR.

“We had two sets of camera/lens combinations as we were cross shooting, as well as having some days with splinter [second] unit shooting,” explained Ruhe. “While I used all of the lenses, the 32mm was my all-time favorite for close-ups inside the planes. Although, to be honest, I did have to move to the 50mm at times due to the limited space within those planes.”

The size of the Cooke S4/I prime lenses was important because Ruhe had to be “very fast and versatile” in close quarters. “I didn’t want to get stuck fighting minimal focus, and thanks to the S4/i’s, I didn’t,” he said.

Production designer David Gropman provided the production team with stills from Heller’s regiment as well as historical newsreel footage to show what life was like in the Allies’ camps.

During camera tests, the team took still images, which were loaded into Photoshop to match the old postcard look from the era. Company 3, which was responsible for digital intermediates, created LUTs for the cameras to match the look.

Both on the ground and in the air, Ruhe created a natural look, which was especially important inside the planes because he didn’t want them to be too perfectly lit. For ground interiors, a 120-foot-by-75-foot soft sail and gray screen were used with a 20K standing in for sunlight.

Episode six offers one of the standout scenes shot with the S4/i 32mm lens, he said. “It’s so close to the faces and so intimate, which I love. You’ll have to see it to understand it, but every DP out there will know what I’m talking about when they watch that episode. It just looks great.”

LEICESTER, England—Following a two-year tenure as Cooke Optics’ digital marketing manager, the company has announced it has promoted Catherine Crawley to the position of director of marketing.

Crawley joined Cooke Optics in 2017 following stints at The Hospital Club and Air Post Production where she worked in sales, marketing and management roles, as well as times at design and digital agencies and as a freelancer as a social media strategist. With Cooke Optics, Crawley has been building the company’s social media presence, including the launch of #shotoncooke, a website gallery for cinematographers to upload images from their work with Cooke lenses.

As the new director of marketing, Crawley will continue to build Cooke’s digital marketing strategy as well as more traditional marketing elements, including events, advertising and sponsorships.

LAS VEGAS—The effort to standardize the collection of lens metadata from PL and selected Panavision mount lenses on the /i Technology protocol is being handled by a group of companies that include Cooke Optics, Panavision, Red Digital Cinema, Canon, Blackmagic Design, CW Sonderoptic and Sony.

Les Zellan

Cooke Optics originally developed the /i Technology, a metadata protocol that provides a digital open standard to gather and share lens data. These companies, along with others that make up the 30 /i Technology partners, are taking significant steps to recognize /i Technolgoy as an industry-wide standard language for metadata from PL mount lenses.

“Our goal has always been to give /i to the wider industry, in order to provide filmmakers and post-production teams around the world the crucial lens data they need, in a format that is universally recognized,” said Les Zellan, chairman and owner of Cooke Optics. “This collaboration takes us a big step closer to achieving that goal.”

LAS VEGAS—At the 2017 NAB Show, Cooke Optics will showcase the Panchro/i Classic series of prime lenses for film and digital capture. First introduced at the 2016 IBC Show, the Panchro/i Classic is a modern redesign of the company’s Speed Panchros lens, with a newly designed housing and PL mounts.

Panchro/i Classic

With its F2.0 aperture and angular field of view, this lightweight lens is ideal for Steadicams, handheld and drone camera work. The lens supports /i technology for frame-by-frame film and digital data capture.

Cooke will also show a front anamorphic/i zoom lens featuring 9x zoom front anamorphic, 45-405mm and T4.5-22, as well as a 35-140mm zoom. Also on display will be the Anamorphic/i SG lens range featuring a coating that gives cinematographers more options for anamorphic character with enhanced flares and other aberrations, while still retaining the oval bokeh.

The 2017 NAB Show takes place in Las Vegas, April 24-27. Cooke Optics will be in boothC5414. For more information, visit www.nabshow.com.

LAS VEGAS—Cooke Optics will unveil its new Cooke 35-140mm wide-angle zoom lens for film and television at the 2016 NAB Show. The lens is a true, front anamorphic with oval bokeh throughout zoom and focus. With its patented optical design, the lens zooms from very wide angle to telephoto, with a 4x zoom ratio. The color and depth of field characteristics are matched to the anamorphic/i-primes, and it enables metadata capture. A second front anamorphic zoom will also be announced.

Cooke 25-140mm lens

Cooke will also present the 300mm anamorphic/i-lens at the show, marking the completion of the original 10 lens prime anamorphic/i-set with focal lengths from 25mm to 300mm. Other Cooke lenses, including the acclaimed 5/i, S4/i and miniS4/i lens ranges, will be showcased as well.

The 2016 NAB Show takes place in Las Vegas, April 18-21. Cooke Optics will be in booth C8344. For more information, visit www.nabshow.com.